CRITICS have told one couple with seven kids to stop having children.
After they showcased their family dynamic on social media, critics have said that Aaron and Latovia Cheatham, 31, should stop having children, but they stay resilient and prioritize community support.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
High school sweethearts Aaron and Latovia Cheatham have been together since they were young, and have seven children born naturally between them.
"Our oldest is 11. A fun fact is my wife was pregnant for like 10 years straight," Aaron told The U.S. Sun.
Their first child was born in July 2012, and their twins were born in September 2013.
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"I think that was the shortest stretch that we have because they're pretty close in age," he added.
But before the married couple became known as The Cheatham Family on social media, they were struggling parents navigating pregnancy and with young children just trying to make it.
"We were just winging it," Aaron said.
"We didn't have much and we had some other little issues that were going on, but long story short, we had lost our apartment.
"I had to have one of those uncomfortable conversations with my mother and was like, 'Hey, Me and Latavia, we went bust. Can we come and move back into my old room?'
"We were kind of at our lowest point, and now we just found out that we're about to have two more babies on top of the one that we already have."
Aaron called it a "grind period" for a year, during which five people lived in his small childhood bedroom.
"We had a crib with the twins. They both slept in a crib together. Me, my wife, and Malia, our oldest, all three of us slept in the bed," he said.
"It's one of those humbling moments for us because, from that point on, we just continued to grow and grow and grow in more ways than one."
The Cheathams didn't always want a big family but described it as part of nature.
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"When there are animals in nature and when things are going well, they procreate, and they have children," Aaron explained.
We have a really strong attraction to each other. It's the perfect recipe to keep making more versions of ourselves.
Aaron Cheatham
"Me and my wife, we have a really strong bond but we're really good friends.
"We have a really strong love for each other. We have a really strong attraction to each other.
"It's the perfect recipe to keep making more versions of ourselves."
STRUGGLE SITUATION
The Cheatham Family's successful transition into content creation gave them another income source as well as a new house and outlook on life.
Known as "Instagram's Favorite Family," they boast over 693,000 followers on the social media platform.
"What we were making from socials surpassed what I was making at my job," Aaron said.
He said they dealt with a fiscally responsible career transition to full-time stay-at-home parenthood in the summer of 2023 while pursuing content creation part-time.
"I'm going to do content full time, and then maybe I can double my income from what it is already right now, but that didn't necessarily happen," he admitted.
Aaron highlighted the emotional and identity-related challenges associated with leaving a job he had done for 10 years and said that a large part of that defined who he was.
"I went through a weird depression phase when my wife was going off to work. She was actually leaving the house and going to work. I was just kind of stuck at home with the kids," he explained.
Now, Aaron has found ways to balance his new life and prioritize his mental health.
The kids were like, 'Daddy look,' and like this dumb video had gone viral with like a million views.
Aaron Cheatham
"I volunteer in our first grader's classroom twice a week. Coaching now with two of our kids on the flag football team. I'm going on all the little field trips," he said.
"I'm just doing all the little, I guess, stay-at-home dad things I never knew existed and I was missing out for a long time."
SOCIAL START
Later, Aaron discussed their experiences as a large Black family on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram and highlighted the importance of representation and connection.
The family didn't get into social media content creation until 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic when everyone was stuck at home.
"During that time, our family was spending a lot of time on our devices," Aaron said, recalling that they were all separately off to themselves.
When two of his daughters were making a TikTok video on their playground, Aaron decided to get involved with them.
"I just started dancing with them in their videos and then I just left. The next day the kids were like, 'Daddy look,' and like this dumb video had gone viral with like a million views," Aaron explained.
"Social media was kind of the glue that brought us back together, if you will."
When the family made the shift from Instagram to TikTok, that is where they found their "home base" filled with people who connected with their dynamic and vice versa.
"Representation matters. That was kind of the message that we were hearing," Aaron said.
QUICK CONTENT
Aaron also addressed the challenges of creating content and dealing with negative comments.
But not everyone is a fan of making content, Aaron said.
The pair's youngest son, Brandon Michael, 5, doesn't enjoy it as much as everyone else.
"I'm still at the point where I want to include the entire family on a lot of our stuff. I have to just get really creative to get him involved," he explained.
We've been blessed seven times. We have seven completely healthy, beautiful smart children. For me, it was just like a sign that we were supposed to stop at seven.
Aaron Cheatham
Sometimes the parents have to make the concept of the video a game or "bribe" some of the kids with ice cream or a trip.
"It can be very taxing, especially on the person who's like trying to organize everybody," the patriarch admitted.
"It's fun. But at the same time, it's becoming, in some cases, like work."
"My issue now is not that the kids don't want to create content. They want to create their [own] content. They want to do what they want to do," Aaron admitted.
COMBAT CRITICISM
"Every once in a while, we'll get just little comments in the pages, but a lot of time, we use those as rebuttals," Aaron said.
"If someone puts a really goofy comment, we'll post another Reel pasting that comment. The video Reel is like our sarcastic answer to that comment.
"It's a way of suddenly clapping back, but not in a way that's intentionally to stir something up."
The couple's children have limited exposure to what comes into their direct messages.
"I kind of read it, and then I just ignore it. You kind of just have to have tunnel vision," he added.
NO NONSENSE
The Cheatham parents have no plans for any new additions, and Aaron even got a vasectomy.
"I'm not a huge fan of the pregnancy birthing process and seeing my wife in that vulnerable state. It was probably the worst experience for me," he admitted.
"I was there every single time and just watching the labor process. It's so like, traumatizing for everybody involved, especially my wife. And I just hated hated seeing her like that."
"The only one that she [Latovia] talks about as being traumatizing is our fourth pregnancy with our daughter Olivia," Aaron said.
"For all of her pregnancies, she had had an epidural, which kind of numbs most of the pain, but she had to do like a natural birth [for Olivia] and it was on her birthday.
"It was like, 'Happy birthday, you're about to go experience the most traumatizing thing you've ever done in your life.' No painkillers, no nothing. Just boom. She had to give birth."
The "straw that broke the camel's back" for the duo and made them realize their family was complete was the unfortunate miscarriage of their eighth child.
Aaron emphasized the importance of sharing their experiences to help others and provide support.
"We've been blessed seven times. We have seven completely healthy, beautiful smart children. For me, it was just like a sign that we were supposed to stop at seven," Aaron said.
